Leading professional enquiry: connect to learn

A great deal¹ has been written, espoused, and claimed in the name of professional enquiry. Like motherhood and apple pie, it is generally assumed to be a good thing. Yet a quick look at the international literature reveals that much of this busy work has yielded relatively little in the way of independent evidence of impact, particularly on students (Harris and Jones 2019).

There is a great deal of description that surrounds professional enquiry, a wealth of case studies, huge volumes of teacher-led accounts, and numerous personal reflections that sometimes border on evangelical praise for whatever enquiry approach is being promulgated. Hard evidence of impact, however, is far more difficult to find. This is not to denigrate the work that professionals do in the name of enquiry but rather to ask two important questions:

How will your enquiry benefit learners?

How will you know you have succeeded?

As in the game of monopoly, if the answer to both questions, even in part, is not forthcoming do not pass go. While it is far easier to start on a premise that everything will become clear as the enquiry progresses and like some Road to Damascus experience, the fog will lift, in fact this is most unlikely. Without a clear sense of purpose from the start that comes from answering the two questions above, even the most well-intentioned enquiry can quickly swirl into introspection, self-reflection, and celebratory accounts of what went well.

With certain notable exceptions (e.g. Campbell, Lieberman, and Yashkina 2016; Lieberman, Campbell, and Yashkina 2016) longitudinal approaches to developing teacher leadership and professional enquiry, such as that demonstrated by the Teacher Learning & Leadership Program (TLLP) are far less prominent in the literature than are descriptive narratives. The TLLP work highlights two things, firstly that to have impact on learners, professional enquiry needs to be accompanied by dedicated time and a set of collaborative skills that need to be practiced and refined. Secondly, that teachers need a clear model of engagement from the outset that is detailed, specific, operational, and ideally, empirically verified.

This is not to suggest any confinement or restriction to professional enquiry work but instead to suggest that a clear model, that goes beyond a few vague statements or inspirational quotes, is needed to support teachers through a rigorous and reliable enquiry process. Starting with a set of propositions or value statements may be laudable but something more refined is needed to adequately support teachers through effective professional enquiry.

Unfortunately, much that happens under the banner of professional enquiry can be unfocused without a clear model and a focus on impact (on learners) from the start (Harris and Jones 2017; 2019). Some fuzzy idea or guesstimate of what the focus of enquiry might be, could be, or should be, will serve to do little more than to muddle the enquiry process and frustrate busy professionals.

Expecting teachers to create, carve out or establish their own enquiry model ‘step by step’ is not just unhelpful, but also fundamentally flawed. Valuable professional energy will be wasted on negotiating, designing, and agreeing how to undertake an enquiry based on a few directives or slides. Instead of getting on with the enquiry itself, teachers will be bogged down with devising their own model or models of enquiry and engagement.

Leading professional enquiry

For those who are leading professional enquiry, the central task is to make the expectations and the process of enquiry explicit and manageable. Part of the confusion, and indeed some of the mystique, around professional enquiry concerns the many labels used to describe it. These labels include practitioner research, action research, collaborative enquiry, cycles of inquiry, research informed practice, action enquiry, professional enquiry, and so on. All these labels encompass the same basic set of research activities but are packaged, often commercially, in ways that suggest uniqueness or difference or novelty. These labels are used interchangeably, sometimes by those leading the training, causing even more confusion and consternation about exactly what professional enquiry entails.

What follows therefore are three suggestion about leading professional enquiry including a suggested model. This list is illustrative not exhaustive, it draws upon empirical and development work that has focused upon professional enquiry in many different countries over many years (Harris and Jones, etc.).

Clarify purpose –those in a position of leading professional enquiry should seek to clarify the purposes, intentions, and expectations of the work at the outset. Just subscribing to a project or a new initiative with professional enquiry at the core may be necessary but will prove insufficient if clarity of purpose is missing. Each participating individual will need to think about the two key questions highlighted earlier before starting any process of enquiry.

How will your enquiry benefit learners?

How will you know you have succeeded?

The answers to these two questions will be imperative prior to the start of any enquiry process. If the professional enquiry is to be more than some collaborative wander through various interesting pieces of research or random approaches to data collection, it needs a defined set of purposes with clear intentions from the outset.

This is not to suggest anything more sophisticated than simply being 100% clear about the purpose of the enquiry from day one, rather than hoping it will become apparent over time or overnight. It is not to propose an overly mechanistic or top-down version of enquiry either but as with a lesson plan, having clarity of purpose at the outset and knowing how you will gauge success is critically important.

Connect to Learn –(C2L) While professional enquiry can be individual or collective, in most cases, it involves some form of collaborative engagement. Improving professional practice means changing the way teachers think about and reflect upon their own learning, so that student learning can be improved. The end game in any professional learning is not the learning of the teacher but the learning of the student, the same is true of professional enquiry.

As noted already, professional enquiry needs some sort of theory of change embedded securely in a clear, working, operational model to be most successful. ‘Connect to Learn’² offers one potential enquiry model that has a track record of supporting effective collaborative learning. The C2L model has been used successfully by hundreds of schools in England, Australia, Russia, and Malaysia to support their professional enquiry work (Harris and Jones 2012).

C2L is based on a model of professional collaboration and enquiry that underpinned a national approach to enquiry in the form of professional learning communities (Harris and Jones 2017). In 2014 the OECD³ noted:

One of the more promising reform strategies to support school improvement and effective continuous professional development in Wales has been the commitment to creating professional learning communities in and across schools. This strategy, which commenced in 2009, foresaw the initial training for school teams in developing professional learning communities. The professional learning community model is founded on having teachers of different levels and areas of focus working together to inquire into and improve practice with a view to having a positive effect on student outcomes. (76)

Within the C2 l model there are three inter-related phases (implementation, innovation, and impact). Each of the three stages is accompanied by a detailed exposition of what needs to be done by the individual or the enquiry team as well as those leading the professional enquiry process. There are practical suggestions,⁴ prompts and material associated with this model to support the process of professional enquiry.

The aim of the C2L model is not only to provide professionals with a roadmap to professional enquiry but also to give them the tools to gauge impact from the start (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Connect to Learn (C2L).

Considering Impact –While personal and organisational learning can be important outcomes of professional enquiry, if there is zero impact upon student learning then the whole process is questionable. As highlighted earlier, the purpose of professional enquiry is not to form some cosy collaboration of professionals, or to undertake random acts of professional kindness but to make a positive difference to learner outcomes.

To make such a difference means challenging existing practices as well as trialling and testing new practices. Recycled knowledge is not the main purpose of professional enquiry, although it appears to be a common outcome and feature of much of this type of activity.

Coda

There is insufficient room in this editorial to fully address all the issues and challenges associated with leading professional enquiry. As noted earlier, the literature is extensive, and the approaches are varied in what they propose, advocate, and quite bluntly, sell. It would be wise, therefore, for those leading professional learning to be very discerning about the enquiry approaches that they select.

Where evidence of impact barely exists, where it looks manufactured, where it is buried deep within self-report or glossed over in promotional videos, or commercial packages, think again. It would also be sensible to reflect upon whether those advocating or promoting approaches to professional enquiry have ever engaged in such activity themselves.

Looking towards 2021, it is now clear that on-line, professional enquiry is likely to be the modus operandi for the foreseeable future. Despite the demands of working, learning, and socialising on-line, progress has been made and a new brand of distributed leadership and professional learning is emerging defined by networks, on screen relationships and virtual connectivity (Azorín, Harris, and Jones 2020). The challenge now is to ensure that professional enquiry, within a digital environment, is as effective as it can be by utilising models of enquiry that can facilitate and secure a positive impact on learners.

Lead well and stay safe in 2021.

Notes

1 Guest expert.

2 http://www.learnersfirst.net/private/wp-content/uploads/Connecting-professional-learning-leading-effective-collaborative-enquiry-across-teaching-school-alliances.pdf

3 https://www.oecd.org/education/Improving-schools-in-Wales.pdf

4 http://www.learnersfirst.net/private/wp-content/uploads/Connecting-professional-learning-leading-effective-collaborative-enquiry-across-teaching-school-alliances.pdf